The Real Guide to Mahjong Clubs in San Francisco

San Francisco has been quietly building the country’s most distinctive mahjong scene. While New York is doing curated pop-ups and LA is doing speakeasies, the Bay Area went the route only the Bay Area would: it embedded mahjong into restaurants, the Ferry Building plaza, and a downtown public square — turning the game into a piece of civic infrastructure rather than a nightlife category.

If you live in SF and want to find a table tonight — not next Saturday, not “soon” — here are the clubs and recurring events you can actually walk into. Schedules are current as of April 2026.

The Bay Area Scene, in One Paragraph

San Francisco mahjong is unusually distributed and unusually accessible. Multiple weekly recurring games happen at neighborhood restaurants and public spaces — meaning you don’t have to chase pop-ups or join a private group to find a table. Hong Kong-style and American-style games coexist in the same rooms. Pricing skews low to free. The scene’s spiritual center is split between Chinatown’s traditional players and the new wave of Asian-American-owned venues like 13 Orphans and Mamahuhu, which have made mahjong a built-in feature of going out to dinner.

Five Recurring Games You Can Show Up To

1. 13 Orphans — Friday Night Mahjong (SF, Asian-American-owned mahjong den + speakeasy)

What it is: A small, intimate Asian-American-owned mahjong den and speakeasy that hosts Friday Night Mahjong for $17.77 per person, including mahjong sets, instruction, and house-made tea elixirs and cocktails inspired by traditional Chinese medicine ingredients.

Why it matters: 13 Orphans is one of the most fully realized mahjong concepts in the country — it’s not a bar that hosts mahjong, it’s a mahjong place. The branding, the drinks, the room, the sets, the instruction model — it’s all considered. The $17.77 price point is precise (and the number is a wink to the lucky-eight tradition). Tables fill quickly.

Who it’s for: Anyone who wants their mahjong night to also be the dinner-and-drinks plan. Especially good for date nights, small groups celebrating something, or first-time players who want a teacher built into the cost.

Style: American and Hong Kong both available; staff will set you up based on your group.

2. Dragon Well — The Mahjong Lair (Tuesday nights)

What it is: Tuesdays, 5 PM–9 PM, $20 per person. Mahjong tables, tiles, complimentary snacks, and Red Blossom teas. Reserve a single seat or a complete table. Instruction available for both Hong Kong-style and American-style play.

Why it matters: Dragon Well is a Cow Hollow / Marina Chinese restaurant that’s quietly built one of the most consistent weekly mahjong nights in the Bay Area. The format — single seats can join open tables — is rare and great for solo players. The Red Blossom tea pairing is genuinely special; Red Blossom is one of SF’s most respected tea houses.

Who it’s for: Solo players who don’t have a group. Tea drinkers. Anyone who wants a midweek mahjong habit.

3. Mahjong Mondays at Mamahuhu (4 locations)

What it is: Every Monday, all four Mamahuhu restaurant locations host Mahjong Mondays — Inner Richmond (SF), Noe Valley (SF), Mill Valley (Marin), and Palo Alto. Beginners’ table and open-play table at each spot.

Why it matters: This is the most distributed weekly mahjong event in the Bay Area. Wherever you live, there’s probably a Mamahuhu close enough. The food is the food (Mamahuhu is the casual Sichuan concept from the Mister Jiu’s team, so the bar is high). The weekly cadence and the multi-location coverage make it the closest thing to a mahjong franchise the country has.

Who it’s for: Mondays are slow nights in most of the Bay; this turns one into the best night of the week. Great entry point for beginners — instruction at the beginner’s table, open table for everyone else.

Bonus: The Bay Area Mahjong Meetup group anchors itself at the Noe Valley Mamahuhu on Mondays, 6–9 PM, playing both Chinese and American styles. That’s the way to find regulars and get folded into a recurring group.

4. Ferry Building Wednesday Mahjong

What it is: Wednesdays, 3 PM–6 PM, in the plaza at the Ferry Building Marketplace. Players of all skill levels gather. Sets and Chinese-style play instruction provided.

Why it matters: It’s outdoors, on the water, in one of the most beautiful public plazas in San Francisco, and it’s free. This is the platonic ideal of “mahjong as civic activity.” The crowd is intergenerational and community-rooted; it’s been running long enough to be a fixture.

Who it’s for: Tourists who want a quintessentially SF afternoon. Locals who work nearby and want a midweek break. Anyone with a parent visiting from out of town.

5. UN Plaza Sunday Sessions (Civic Center)

What it is: Sundays, 11 AM–2 PM at UN Plaza in Civic Center. Drop-in mahjong (and chess) games every week. The Mechanics’ Institute provides free lessons and on-site guidance.

Why it matters: This is part of a broader civic effort to revitalize the Civic Center / UN Plaza area, and mahjong is one of the activities that’s actually working. The Mechanics’ Institute is a 170-year-old SF library and chess club; their involvement means the lessons are real, not improvised. Free, drop-in, weekly.

Who it’s for: Sunday-morning crowd. People who want to learn from an actual teacher without paying for a class. Players who like outdoor play.

The Smaller Layer

Beyond the recurring weeklies above, the Bay Area has a deeper layer of organizers and pop-ups worth knowing about:

The Mahjong Movement — an organization built around promoting empathy and connection through mahjong, with rotating events and pop-ups across the Bay Area in partnership with various venues. Strong cultural programming.
Mahjong with Kim — private and small-group lessons in the Bay Area for both American and Hong Kong-style mahjong. The right call if you want one-on-one instruction.
SF Mahj — a long-running community resource and informal directory of Bay Area games.

For anything not listed above, Bay Area Mahjong Meetup is the most reliable pulse-check — search the group, filter for “events in the next 30 days,” and you’ll see what’s alive.

What It Costs

The Bay Area is the cheapest major mahjong market in the country relative to its cost of living. Rough numbers:

Ferry Building Wednesdays / UN Plaza Sundays: free.
Mamahuhu Mondays: food and drink only — no cover.
Dragon Well Mahjong Lair: $20 per person.
13 Orphans Friday Mahjong: $17.77 per person.
Private lessons (Mahjong with Kim, others): ~$50–$100/hour.

That’s it. There’s no $75 ticketed event scene the way there is in NYC; the Bay’s model is restaurant-embedded and public-space-embedded, which keeps prices low.

What to Bring

Almost nothing. Every game above provides tiles, tables, and either teaching staff or experienced players willing to coach you through your first hand. A few specifics:

Cash for Dragon Well and 13 Orphans. They take cards too, but cash is faster at the door.
Layers for Ferry Building Wednesdays. It’s a plaza on the bay. The fog is real even in summer.
Your own NMJL card if you’re playing American. $14, order from nationalmahjonggleague.org. Most clubs have a few spares but don’t count on it.
Patience. You’ll get Charleston’d in your first hand and have no idea what’s happening. Hour two it makes sense.

Want to feel less lost on your first night? Our Beginner’s Mahjong Cheat Sheet explains every call, every tile group, and the Charleston on a single page — free when you join the MahjongPulse newsletter. We made it because the official rule sheets assume you already know the game.

What Makes the Bay Area Different

A few things stand out about SF mahjong compared to LA and New York:

The game lives in restaurants, not bars. Mamahuhu, Dragon Well, 13 Orphans — all food-first venues that built mahjong into the experience rather than tacking it onto nightlife. The result is a more sober, more conversational scene than what you’ll find in LA or NYC’s social club circuit.

It’s public. Ferry Building and UN Plaza both put mahjong in literal public squares. That’s a Bay Area civic move and it shapes the culture — anyone can wander in, no door, no list.

Hong Kong style is more visible than American. Most Bay Area weekly games offer both, but the heritage center of gravity tilts toward Cantonese-rooted play in a way it doesn’t in LA or NYC. If you’ve always wanted to learn Hong Kong mahjong, the Bay is the easiest US market to pick it up in.

Weeknights work. The whole scene is built around weeknight recurrence — Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sundays. Friday is the weekend night with a flagship game (13 Orphans). Saturday is quieter than you’d think.